Christmas and New Years

It was a great Christmas this year because both kids were old enough to really "get it" which makes it so much fun - they were spoiled rotten as usual!

Yesterday was St. Nicholas day so we celebrated by spending some time outside playing in the snow with the girls - I mostly watched since I am still on crutches with my foot in a boot - although I did get pelted with a few snowballs! Then our local neighborhood businesses put on a Winter Festival complete with horse drawn wagon rides, Santa, a tree lighting, hot chocolate and a raffle. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time. Ella felt that the Santa was definitely just an elf pretending to be Santa because he was far too skinny so she said she would wait until Friday to sit on the real Santa's lap but Tess climbed right up! We are hoping they will do it every year because it was the perfect little celebration. When we got home St. Nicholas had left gifts for the girls! The both got new slippers, bath towels, mittens and hats, and fruit! They were so excited!

We celebrated Ella's 4th birthday yesterday at Chuck E. Cheese. It was great - we had about 27 kids, a bunch of adults, pizza, cake, and the wonderful craziness that can only be found at Chuck E. Cheese. The kids all had a blast and we didn't have to do a thing! It was the easiest party ever! Ella has decided she would like to have her parties there forever and Kevin and I both said "ok!" Here are some pics of the fun day!

I took Ella to her school Halloween party tonight. Ella is pretty insistent that parents have to dress up too so I let her pick out my costume (I'm brave). Luckily the first thing she grabbed was this pink cowboy hat - I can do that! We left Tess home with Aunties and had our special night out. We had pizza, candy and pop. She saw a bunch of her friends from school, she marched in the costume contest and she even went in the haunted house! There were a bunch of younger kids going through at the same time so they toned it down a bit and Ella did great! She carried one of my plastic cowgirl pistols and shot at the monsters in the haunted house. The rest of the night all she could talk about was how brave she was. Tomorrow night we do it all again for trick or treating.

Ella learned a new song in school today - she stumbles a couple of times but I think considering she just learned it today she did pretty well. She really wanted Grandpa Gummie to hear it so we recorded it for him. Happy Halloween everyone!

Sunday I took the girls for some trick or treating to the outdoor mall in Algonquin and we made a stop by Auntie Linda and Uncle Casey's so they could show off their costumes. When we got home they carved pumpkins with Daddy and Aunties.

Grrr AOL and our trip to the apple orchard

AOL has decided to discontinue their journal/blog so I have had to start a new one here on Blogger. I am not very happy about it! I have to save all the information from my old one and I have the option to put it all on here but decided to just save it and start this one fresh. Last weekend we had a great trip to the apple orchard with Auntie Linda, Uncle Casey and Will. It was perfect weather although a bit windy. We got our apples, picked pumpkins, raspberries and purchased lots of goodies. The girls had a blast having pony rides and playing in the farm play area. Enjoy the pics - hopefully everyone will be able to follow this one as easily as the other one!